An informant has been given 10 days to step forward.

Apr. 17, 2013
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The Iowa Senate Ethics Committee signaled Wednesday that it hopes to quickly resolve two ethics complaints against Sen. Kent Sorenson that relate to his work for the short-lived presidential campaign of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann.

The six-member state panel — three Democrats and three Republicans — agreed to dismiss one of the complaints if a confidential informant doesn’t step forward within 10 days with an affidavit providing evidence against Sorenson.

The affidavit reportedly will claim that Sorenson, a Milo Republican, violated Iowa Senate rules in 2011 while serving as state chairman of Bachmann’s GOP presidential campaign.

The affidavit relates to a complaint by Peter Waldron of Palm Harbor, Fla., who alleges Sorenson concealed $7,500 a month in personal compensation to serve as Bachmann’s Iowa campaign chief. Waldron was national field coordinator for Bachmann’s presidential campaign from July 2011 to January 2012.

The Senate panel also directed Michael Marshall, the secretary of the Senate, to contact Urbandale police regarding the status of an investigation into an allegation that Sorenson broke the law by taking a list of private home schools from a former campaign staffer’s office computer.

Sen. Wally Horn, D-Cedar Rapids, chairman of the ethics committee, said he hopes to wrap up work on the two complaints by early May and before this year’s legislative session ends.

He said if the police investigation is still unresolved, the matter could be dropped for now by the ethics committee. That would leave the door open for an ethics complaint to be refiled if Sorenson is convicted of any wrongdoing regarding the home school list.

Sen. Jack Whitver, R-Ankeny, urged the committee to move forward to consider the complaints, which were filed in January. “If there is an ethics charge out there, we want a resolution one way or another. We don’t want to go all through summer and fall with an unknown situation,” Whitver said.

Sorenson has said he “vehemently” denies any wrongdoing as claimed by Waldron.

Waldron wrote in an email on Tuesday to Marshall that a confidential witness he had previously identified is now “ready, willing and able to provide oral testimony and documentary evidence” that Sorenson concealed personal compensation for serving as Bachmann’s state campaign chairman.

Waldron said the witness is unable to travel, but is willing to testify by telephone and submit relevant documents to the Senate committee.